Around Town

‘It’s Been a Wonderful Place To Work’: Jeff Zaino Retiring After 37 Years at New Canaan Library

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When Jeff Zaino started as a serials clerk at New Canaan Library in January of 1983, visitors found books by using a card catalogue. 

There was no such thing as the World Wide Web, and Center School—New Canaan’s original elementary school, now an underused parking lot—stood across Maple Street in its final months of occupancy. Now the head of infrastructure at the library—through the years he’s worked as head of circulation, when that involved stamping and signing out books, reference librarian, go-to computer guy and head of digital services, and also helped with collections, selecting religion, philosophy and foreign language books—Zaino will go to work Wednesday for the last time. 

“There’s a lot of excitement and a little bit of anxiety because it’s a new lifestyle,” Zaino said of his retirement. “But certainly I would put it at 90% exhilaration and 10% anxiety.”

His final day bookends a career that has bridged the digital age at New Canaan’s community hub, and marks a farewell to one of the town’s most familiar faces. Zaino is described by longtime colleagues and patrons as a smart, funny, dedicated and adaptable professional whose significant behind-the-scenes work has helped the library staff excel. “He’s super-interesting as a human being,” said Lisa Oldham, the library’s executive director.

Faces of New Canaan

Faces of New Canaan: Jeff Zaino

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There could be no better candidate for the “Faces of New Canaan” series than Jeff Zaino—or, as I’d thought of him for 30-plus years (before two weeks ago, when I asked him to participate in this feature), ‘That Library Guy.’ Here, we spotlight individuals who—though they may not be familiar to us because they’re famous or hold especially prominent positions in town—make up the fabric of New Canaan. These are people we associate with our town—the people, who, say, if you go away for a while, upon returning to New Canaan, you spot them again and know you’re home. I remember Zaino from when I was a kid and our mom took us to the library several days a week—I found out during our chat (transcribed in full below) that I was about eight years old when Zaino came here. I asked Zaino about his background and hobbies, experiences at the library and ways that New Canaan’s taste in things like reading materials has changed, or not, through the years.